


fireworks

by rycbar123



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Cuban Lance (Voltron), M/M, merman!keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-18 06:10:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11285292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rycbar123/pseuds/rycbar123
Summary: Keith doesn't think he'll ever find someone to enjoy his song until he swims to the surface for a fireworks display and meets a shiny-eyed, guitar-playing, Spanish-speaking human off of Veradero beach.





	fireworks

**Author's Note:**

> unbeta'd so hmu if you catch any mistakes that i didnt, and thank you for reading! i got this idea in my head after reading a merman!Lance fic and had to write it before i left the idea to die. also sorry if its ooc. not only have i not written these two yet, i havent wrote anything in like a year lmao im rusty as shit. hope you enjoy anyway~

No one had ever complimented Keith’s song before - besides his brother - which was fine, it was. Keith had never been very good with interacting with other merpeople before, he was used to it. He didn’t particularly want nor need a significant other. It was just kind of lonely sometimes, when he would see his friends or his brother with their other half. And it wasn’t like he was a bad singer or anything, it was just that no one had ever sung back to him before.

“Which is fine. You’ll find someone, Keith. You’re so young,” Shiro assured him, placing a hand on his shoulder and smiling in that brotherly way of his. Keith didn’t like that Shiro always felt the need to reassure him about being unbonded. It didn’t bother him, honestly, it didn’t.

“I know, Takashi, I’m fine,” he insisted, and Shiro just sighed, a little bubble floating up between their faces. Keith rolled his eyes and flicked his tail in annoyance. “I’m happy, Shiro.”

Shiro smiled at that, nodding his head. Keith was a little grumpy but he had never seemed unhappy. And hopefully Shiro couldn’t tell how lonely he had been since Shiro met Allura and stopped spending as much time with his brother. “I know. I just want you to find someone,” Shiro said, and Keith rolled his eyes again. Shiro just laughed, swimming in a tight circle before swimming away from Keith.

“Me and Allura are gonna go watch the fireworks tonight. You’re welcome to join us!” he shouted as he swam off and Keith groaned. Right. The fireworks. It was the 4th of July, also known as: Keith’s least favorite day. It was the day all the merfolk and their bondmates and families would swim to the the surface and find somewhere to watch the fireworks because not only was it America’s independence day, it was also a merfolk holiday, and had been far before it was an American holiday. 

The 4th of July or 1872 was the day merfolk came out of hiding.

Yeah, sure, they still didn’t interact with humans very often, but at least they weren’t a secret any more. Keith had never met a human but he wasn’t scared of them like merfolk used to be. They used to be nothing more than a myth. It’s not like they went to the surface very often or anything but they didn’t have to be scared when they did anymore, and now there were laws preventing humans from hunting or killing merfolk or hunting in their territories. Nothing worse than getting trapped in a fisherman’s net.

Keith hadn’t been to see the fireworks since his parents had died when he was a kid. They used to make a whole day of it: dressing nice, going out to eat, going to find a big rock or an empty part of the beach and sitting out of the water, watching the fireworks. His mom used to swim them into a cave that opened up toward the shore and sing to him. After they died, Keith couldn’t imagine going back there or even to see the fireworks without breaking down. And besides, now he was at the age where all of his friends were going with their significant others and he didn’t want to third wheel anyone.

But this year, for some reason, Keith decided he would go. He was 19 years old, almost 20, he couldn’t be sad about it forever.  _ I can _ his subconscious whispered, but he ignored it in favor of finding a suitable ringlet to put on his head and appropriate jewelry. His long nails were already painted a dark red color to match the soft scales that littered his face, wrists, and forearms, the same scales that decorated his tail, spine, and waist. He thought about taking off the sash that held his knife and the necklace pocket he kept his money and treasured belongings in but decided against it. It wasn’t like he was going out on any special occasion, he was just going out with Shiro and Allura. Nothing new.

Keith set out early, swimming toward the cave his parents used to take him to. The sun was starting to set and the sky was full of beautiful pinks and oranges. The water was starting to cool down, much to Keith’s delight, and there weren’t many merfolk still out along the edges of their underwater city. Keith loved being able to swim around by himself. People always wanted to stop him and bother him, especially people that knew he was related to Shiro or knew he knew the Princess Allura because, damn, didn’t Shiro get lucky? But times like now, when it was just him, he could lazily dive in and out of the water and swim as slow or as fast as he would like to, it was peaceful.

He was coming up on the cave about two hours before sunset. He popped out of the surface and floated toward it. In the distance, people hollered. His sensitive ears could hear whole families setting up picnics and towels up and down Veradero Beach. Keith lived off the coast of Southern California but the fireworks always looked best off of Veradero, at least that’s what his parents had always told him. And he knew Shiro would be there somewhere, with Allura and her family and their friends. 

As he approached the cave, Keith’s ears picked up a quiet guitar strumming some tune he couldn’t recognize. It was pretty, he thought as he swam closer, making sure he was still carefully under cover of the ocean. The water was incredibly clear but hopefully the person couldn’t see him when it was getting dark. 

“Come on, Lance,” the guitar player whispered, and Keith wondered for a moment if there was someone else with him but no, his ears could only pick up one gentle heartbeat. It almost seemed to beat in time with the guitar and Keith smiled, popping his head above the water to get a better look. “One more time.” And then the plucking picked up again, this time faster, a little more confident. Keith swam quietly around the cave and pulled himself up to rest his arms on a rock. He rested his head on the crook of his arms like a pillow and watched the guy play.

He was tall, with dark skin that popped against his blue swim trunks and wavy brown hair. Keith couldn’t see his face but he could tell he was a native, not American. His voice didn’t have much of an accent when he spoke quietly to himself, but neither did Keith’s and he wasn’t American either, not by blood. The guitar guys playing was beautiful and Keith felt his eyes slip shut and he began to hum. He didn’t mean to. It’s not like he was trying to be  _ seen _ not that he had any problem with humans, he just didn’t know how to deal with them. Would he talk to one like he would another merperson?

Keith didn’t realize he had started singing until he heard a loud  _ splash _ , an even louder,  _ HOLY SHIT _ , and he dropped back in the water, his heart racing. He pressed himself against the rock and froze, straining his ears so he could hear the other frantic heartbeat just a few feet above him.

“Hey,” the guitar guy said quietly, and Keith’s heart skipped a beat. Fuck. “Where did you go?” Keith could practically feel the guy’s heartbeat getting closer and closer to the ledge. He sucked in a deep breath through the slitted gills below his ears and swam cautiously back to the surface. When he popped up, he came face-to-ankle with the guitar player.

“Holy shit,” the guy said again, and Keith frowned. “Holy  _ shit _ , you’re a mermaid.”

Keith made a high pitched, displeased noise at the back of his throat. The guy took a few steps back, covering his ears, and sat down on the rock. “Mer _ man _ ,” Keith corrected, slowly pulling himself back up to rest his arms on the rock. His waist down was still under the water and he thought about splashing this biped with water.

The guy laughed. “Right. Sorry. I’ve just never met one of you guys before,” he said, and Keith made a noise of agreement. The guy was pretty, he noticed, with dark freckles spattered over his nose, cheeks, and shoulders, and ridiculously bright blue eyes. He kept pushing his hair out of his face and giving Keith a blinding half-smile, and Keith thought again about splashing him. 

“My name is Lance.” Lance held out a hand. Keith blinked at it. What was he supposed to do with it? It looked weird. The nails were short and stubby. His fingers were at least half an inch shorter than any Keith had ever seen, too, and there was no webbing between them. Could he even swim?

“Keith,” Keith responded shortly. He pulled himself up on his elbows so he could better see Lance’s hand and, ignoring the strange look he gave him, grabbed it with both of his own and sniffed it. When their skin touched, Lance’s hand jerked but he didn’t pull away. “Can you swim?” 

Lance laughed. “I love to swim. I’m really good at it.”

Keith nodded. “How can you do that with these hands?”

Lance tilted his head to the side and took his eyes off of Keith’s face long enough to look down at his hands. “ _ Woah _ ,” he whispered, and gently grabbed one of Keith’s hands. He flinched, but let Lance take it. “So cool.” Lance smiled. Humans were amused by hands? he thought, but then again, he was fascinated by Lance’s own hands.

After a short study session, Lance gently released Keith’s hand and looked back up at him. Keith was suddenly hyper aware of his sharp, pointed ears, and the scales that were scattered in bright red clumps around his skin, and how his teeth were pointed like fangs. He slunk back and grabbed the ledge with his hands, lowering himself down until only his eyes, nose, and fingers were visible above the water. His eyes kept flickering down to where Lance’s tail would be if he had one. Keith knew they were called legs and what they looked like, but he had never seen any up close before. They were kind of ugly, he decided.

“Do you like music?” Lance asked, leaning back to pick up his guitar. He strummed it a few times and Keith nodded, picking up how different it sounded above water, not to mention how different it  _ looked _ . “Do you know any human music?” He plucked out a steady rhythm and Keith hummed.

“Not much,” he admitted, pulling himself back up a little bit to rest his arms on the rocks. “My parents used to listen to it before they died so if it’s come out in the past thirteen years, no.”

Lance frowned, his fingers stilling for a moment, before he nodded. “If I just bullshit could you sing along?” There was a half-smile on his face and Keith felt his gills flare up. He could smell Lance’s curiosity and excitement. It was almost overwhelming. And he didn’t miss how Lance’s eyes flew to his neck before coming back up to meet his eyes.

Keith nodded. “I can do that.” He dipped back under the water to take a deep breath then came back up to rest on the rocks, pulling his whole body up so he sat with just the end of his tail in the water. Lance’s eyes immediately flew to his tail and his mouth dropped open with a quiet  _ pop _ .

“Woah,” he said quietly, and Keith frowned, making a shrill, uncomfortable noise in his throat. His hands dropped down to smoothe over the translucent fins that flared out from his waist and Lance’s eyes moved back up to his. He looked back down for a minute before shaking his head and smiling. “Sorry. It’s just… That’s really fuckin’ cool. You’re uh.” He coughed, his head ducking down while he strummed absentmindedly at his guitar. Keith could hear his heart stuttering in his chest. “Your tail is gorgeous.”

And now it was Keith’s turn for his heart to stutter. He blinked, his tail flicking in the water in surprise. No one had ever called him gorgeous before. “I can tell you’ve never seen a merperson before,” he said with a gentle hum, moving to lay on his stomach so he could rest his chin on his palm and swish his tail in the water to keep it wet. Every few strokes he would lift it up, dripping water on his back and over his face, careful not to get Lance wet. “There’s a lot of red where I come from.”

Lance looked back up and nodded. “Sure, sure. But I doubt any of them look like  _ you _ ,” he said, and the sincerity in his voice made Keith actually smile, though he was careful to keep his teeth behind his lips. “Anyway,” Lance continued, and strummed through his strings once before picking back up the same melody he’d been playing when Keith first swam up. “I’ll play and you sing.”

Keith nodded as Lance began to play. His eyes slipped shut as he felt the vibrations in his chest, in his skin. He concentrated on every movement Lance’s hands made on the instrument and felt his gills and chest both flare up with emotion as he opened his mouth to sing. It wasn’t even words, it was just noise. Some merfolk sang with words, sure, but for the most part it was just beautiful noise. Keith had never been a very good lyricist so he just focused on the emotion and went with it.

He didn’t even know how much time had passed before he finally noticed Lance was no longer playing. His voice faded out and he opened his eyes. Lance had completely set down his guitar and he was leaning toward Keith with a dazed look on his thin face. It seemed to take him a moment before he snapped out of it, blinking a few times and shaking his head. He was so close Keith could feel his warm breath on his skin and he wondered how he hadn’t even noticed him move.

“That was…” Lance shook his head. “I’ve never heard anything like that in my entire life.” His voice was soft and breathy, like he could barely form the words, and Keith’s heart skipped a beat. Or two, but who was counting? 

Keith knew there was a huge difference between a siren song and a love song, knew that siren songs fed off of uglier emotions and kept you captivated just long enough to kill you. They sang siren songs while they were hunting. Love songs fed off of positive emotion and were usually returned with another song, if someone liked it that much. For a split second Keith thought he had accidentally taken his frustrations on Lance and started a siren song, but then Lance sat back with a huge smile on his face and grabbed his guitar again. 

He started playing the same thing and nodded to Keith. Keith smiled and closed his eyes to start singing again. When Lance started to sing with him in perfectly accented, beautiful Spanish, Keith lost his breath. His heart nearly stopped. His eyes opened and he looked up at Lance who was already looking back at him, still singing. His cheeks turned pink and he laughed, shaking his head and closing his eyes. Keith started singing again as soon as he got his breath back.

They sang together until the sun was fully set and Keith’s scales started to glow in the moonlight. Lance set his guitar aside and moved to lay on his stomach in front of Keith, mirroring him. He held himself up on his elbows and reached forward with one hand to trail his fingertips across the glowing red on Keith’s cheekbones. “You’re incredible,” Lance said in a quiet voice. “I can’t even believe you’re _ real _ ,  _ dios mio.” _

Keith’s eyes fluttered up at the quiet Spanish and his heart soared. It was weird, he knew that. Humans and merfolk didn’t get together. Hell, they barely even tolerated each other, but Lance’s face was open and honest and he was staring at Keith like he was the best thing he had ever laid eyes on and Keith had never been in love but he was sure this is what it felt like.

“This is cute,” Lance said, reaching up to run Keith’s ruby-jeweled ringlet between his fingers. His tan skin glowed in the light of Keith’s scales. 

Keith tilted his head to the side so Lance could get a better look. “Merfolk wear a lot of jewelry,” he said, noticing Lance’s lack of jewelry. “It’s merfolk-made material, minus the jewels.” He played with the intricate chains that adjourned his hands. He had his mother’s old engagement necklace on and his fingers traced the jewel on the front before dropping back down.

“It’s all so beautiful. Could you make me some?” Lance asked with a smile, and Keith blinked. Sure, merfolk made jewelry for the friends and family, but for the most part, that was something saved for bonded pairs. It was just incredibly time consuming and most merfolk infused their love songs in the precious metals. Keith wasn’t exactly sure how it was done, but his mother had told him about it when he was a kid. 

“Maybe,” Keith decided on, and Lance’s responding smile was blinding.

“Dope,” he replied, and Keith tried not to smile back as the fireworks started sounding off the beach. They both looked up at the sky at the same time. Lance stood up and walked to the mouth of the cave to sit down with his feet in the water and Keith followed suit, sliding back in the water to swim around to where Lance stood. He leaned his back against the rock and watched the fireworks explode in clouds of reds and blues. Keith leaned his head on the rock and looked at Lance as he watched the fireworks. He was beautiful, Keith thought.

“Hey,” Lance said after the first round was over, and Keith looked back up at him.

“Hi,” he responded after a beat of silence, because Lance was just blinking at him, and Lance smiled. 

“Can I see you again? I mean, do you come here often?” he asked, and Keith laughed at the line. Lance seemed to realize what he said because his face turned pink again and he shook his head. “I mean, I just- I want to see you again. I think it’d be cool.”

Keith made a happy clicking noise before nodding. “Yeah, I’d like that,” he said, and Lance smiled so wide it looked like his face was going to split in two.

“Yeah? Awesome. I-  _ Awesome _ ,” he stuttered out, and Keith laughed, dipping down into the water and starting to swim off toward his village. “ _ Wait _ !”

Keith stopped and turned around, his eyes level with the surface of the water as he looked up toward Lance. “How will I- When do you think I’ll be able to- Do you--”

“Tomorrow?” Keith asked above the water, and Lance’s mouth snapped shut. He nodded vigorously. 

“Yes. Yes! Awesome! Yeah, I’ll, uh. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, and Keith could smell his happiness again. He smiled, sliding back under the water. 

As he swam away, he splashed Lance with a wave of water and listened to him laugh before speeding off, trying to stave off the high pitched noise his throat was trying to make. He was still singing even when he got home and Shiro didn’t even try and talk to him, he just looked at him with a smile on his face and flicked his tail toward him in a  _ goodnight _ gesture. 

Keith went to sleep right before the sun rose, and he could swear he could hear Lance’s heartbeat from his bedroom.

**Author's Note:**

> may or may not write a second part / part from Lance's POV
> 
> ive just started a fandom sideblog on tumblr so follow me. i dont do anything except reblog voltron art rn im so sorry
> 
> @unassumingalien


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